A tremendous album from The Beau Brummels – one of the lesser-remembered groups from the late 60s Warner hipster heyday! At some level, the group's a folk-rock outfit – with the left-of-center feel of some of Fred Neil's best work for Capitol, and a similar blend of east coast honesty and west coast mind expansion. The format here is remarkably simple, but handled with some nice touches by producer Lenny Waronker, who really brings a lot more out of the band than on their earlier indie recordings. Titles include "Are You Happy", "The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune", "The Keeper Of Time", "Only Dreaming Now", "Magic Hollow", "Painter Of Women", and "Triangle". LP, Vinyl record album

Genius work from The Beau Brummels – two albums that no fan of underground 60s rock should be without! First up is Triangle – a tremendous album from The Beau Brummels – one of the lesser-remembered groups from the late 60s Warner hipster heyday! At some level, the group's a folk-rock outfit – with the left-of-center feel of some of Fred Neil's best work for Capitol, and a similar blend of east coast honesty and west coast mind expansion. The format here is remarkably simple, but handled with some nice touches by producer Lenny Waronker, who really brings a lot more out of the band than on their earlier indie recordings. Titles include "Are You Happy", "The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune", "The Keeper Of Time", "Only Dreaming Now", "Magic Hollow", "Painter Of Women", and "Triangle". Bradley's Barn is a crucial album in the sound of late 60s Warner – recorded by west coasters The Beau Brummels in the heart of Tennessee, at the legendary studios of country producer Owen Bradley! This meeting of west and country is fantastic – a really incredible extension of earlier folksy rock styles forged by Dylan, Fred Neil, Tim Buckley, and others – handled with incredible care, and a style that's equally honest and ironic – but coming together with a sound that's unlike anything else we can think of – one of those rare few albums that somehow draws from a wealth of inspiration, but manages to make something completely standout in the process – almost a Feelies/Good Earth for its own generation! Tremendous stuff – and titles include "Jessica", "Bless You California", "I'm A Sleeper", "Little Bird", "Turn Around", and "An Added Attraction". CD

A sublime album from the great Bobbie Gentry – and maybe her strongest full-length set recorded during the classic Capitol years! The title's "sweete" is a hillbilly play on the word "suite" – and the album definitely works as an extended suite of tracks – almost a concept album, and one that mixes lots of Bobbie's own tunes with a few well-chosen covers – all set to larger arrangements that feature strings from Jimmie Haskell and horns directed by Shorty Rogers – all while Gentry leads the combo at the core! Later Capitol albums had Gentry doing a lot of covers, and maybe losing her identity a bit – but this set is more of an expansion on the mode she brought to the "Billie Joe" single – with tracks that include "Reunion", "Mornin Glory", "Sermon", "Penduli Pendulum", "Jessye Lisabeth", "Courtyard", "Okolona River Bottom Band", and "Refractions". 2CD version features a brand new stereo mix from the original tapes, the original mono mix of the album, and bonus tracks that include demos of "Mornin Glory", "Sermon", "Jessye Lisabeth", "Louisiana Man", "Refractions", "The Way I Do", and "Feelin Good" – plus an instrumental of "Okolona River Bottom Band", and an alternate take of "Mississippi Delta". (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

A sublime album from the great Bobbie Gentry – and maybe her strongest full-length set recorded during the classic Capitol years! The title's "sweete" is a hillbilly play on the word "suite" – and the album definitely works as an extended suite of tracks – almost a concept album, and one that mixes lots of Bobbie's own tunes with a few well-chosen covers – all set to larger arrangements that feature strings from Jimmie Haskell and horns directed by Shorty Rogers – all while Gentry leads the combo at the core! Later Capitol albums had Gentry doing a lot of covers, and maybe losing her identity a bit – but this set is more of an expansion on the mode she brought to the "Billie Joe" single – with tracks that include "Reunion", "Mornin Glory", "Sermon", "Penduli Pendulum", "Jessye Lisabeth", "Courtyard", "Okolona River Bottom Band", and "Refractions". 2LP version features a brand new stereo mix from the original tapes – plus bonus tracks that include demos of "Mornin Glory", "Sermon", "Jessye Lisabeth", "Louisiana Man", "Refractions", "The Way I Do", and "Feelin Good" – plus an instrumental of "Okolona River Bottom Band", and an alternate take of "Mississippi Delta". (Folk/Country, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Easily one of the most successful albums of the British jazz rock years – but still a longtime favorite of ours as well! Mike Oldfield sets a whole new standard here for concept rock – not only by working on a single album-length composition that spans all of sides one and two, but also by playing all instruments himself – in a one man symphony of sound that's pretty darn great! The main theme of the piece will be recognizable from it's stripped-down use in The Exorcist – but we really love Oldfield's expansion on it here in a range of different overdubbed instruments, which are also sometimes processed – and then introduced by Mike in a spoken part that's one of the highlights of the album. CD

Easily one of the most successful albums of the British jazz rock years – but still a longtime favorite of ours as well! Mike Oldfield sets a whole new standard here for concept rock – not only by working on a single album-length composition that spans all of sides one and two, but also by playing all instruments himself – in a one man symphony of sound that's pretty darn great! The main theme of the piece will be recognizable from it's stripped-down use in The Exorcist – but we really love Oldfield's expansion on it here in a range of different overdubbed instruments, which are also sometimes processed – and then introduced by Mike in a spoken part that's one of the highlights of the album. CD

An early live performance by two of the more compelling modern composers of the 70s – both artists working here in mode that fuses their larger ideas onto the idiom of a rock band – but all with a vibe that resonates strongly with their later releases on the Lovely Music label! The first half of the set was composed by Blue Gene Tyranny, the second by Peter Gordon – but the group here is the same throughout, recorded at a live concert in Berkley, providing a great precursor to the later, better-known careers of both composers. There are vocals from Patrice Magnet on some tracks (including a few with lyrics by Kathy Acker), but the songs are often long, and have qualities that reflect the bigger concept works of both Gordon and Tyranny. Musicians include Peter Gordon on saxes and mixing, Tyranny on piano, Karl Young on saxes and woodwinds, Paul Dresher on guitars, and Gene Reffkin on percussion – and there's also some live mixing taking place during the entire performance, creating more complications in the sound. Titles include "Without Warning", "On The Other Hand", "Leading A Double Life", "Machomusic", "God's A Man", "When Baby Gets Wet", and "Intervallic Expansion". (Out Sound, Rock) CD